微空心阴极放电机理及其在电热式推力器中的应用  

Research on Microhollow Cathode Discharge for Application in Electrothermal Propulsion

作　　者：夏广庆[1] 毛根旺[1] Nader Sadeghi 

机构地区：[1]西北工业大学燃烧流动和热结构国家级重点实验室,西安710072 [2]约瑟夫.傅立叶大学&法国国家科学研究中心光谱物理实验室

出　　处：《宇航学报》2008年第5期1607-1611,共5页Journal of Astronautics

基　　金：中法博士生学院项目资助([2006]3074)

摘　　要：近年来,微空心阴极放电(MHCD)技术的发展为研制适用于小卫星的先进新型微推力器提供了可能。MHCD是微放电领域中一种新颖的非平衡高气压辉光放电,其优点是可以在高气压下稳定放电,并且只需要非常低的电压(几百伏特)或者输入功率(百毫瓦数量级)。本文针对MHCD,实验研究了微放电的电流-电压特性,并利用光学发射光谱的方法测量了微等离子体中电子数密度和中性气体温度。结果表明,在稳定的辉光放电下,MHCD孔内的电子数密度和中性气体温度随着压强和放电电流的增加而增大,电子数密度可达1014cm-3,中性气体温度可达1000K。由此可以推断,微空心阴极放电较小的尺寸结构与强烈并可控的气体加热相结合,完全可以开发应用在新型的电热式等离子体推进上,研制成微空心阴极放电等离子体推力器。由于在微放电等离子体中加热了工质气体,因此其性能可大大高于冷气推进。The developments and applications of micro-satellites urgently need new types of microthrusters. Microhollow cathode discharge （MHCD） is a kind of novel non-equilibrium, high pressure glow discharge. It possesses the advantage of stable discharge with relative low voltage （several hundreds volts） or input power （several hundreds of milliwatts） at high pressure. As to MHCD, the current-voltage characteristic of microdischarge was researched, the electron density and gas temperature in the microplasma were measured with optical emission spectroscopy. The electron density is in the order of 10^14cm^-3 while the gas temperature increases with the increasing gas pressure and the discharge current and can reach to 1000K in the stable glow regime. The results show that the extremely small dimensions of MHCD combining with relative intense and controllable gas heating can be applied as a new micro electrothermal thruster for micro-satellite propulsion. Due to the gas propellant is heated in the plasma, the performance of specific impulse and thrust of the microplasma thruster using MHCD will be higher than the cold gas microthruster.

关 键 词：微空心阴极放电(MHCD) 电推进 微推力器 纳卫星推进 发射光谱 

分 类 号：V439.4[航空宇航科学与技术—航空宇航推进理论与工程]